Courtesy of geek culture news site The Mary Sue, we get to look at some exclusive images of Windblade, the fan-created character whose first appearance was in this week's issue of More Than Meets the Eye! Check out the images below, and some snippets from the interview with Mairghread Scott, writer of the mini-series featuring the character, starting in April (which will apparently also feature Starscream, Blurr and Chromia).

Jaydot: The TFWiki entry about Windblade is pretty sparse. We know she’s got a “fancy sword” and turns into a jet, and there’s almost literally no other info about her. Without getting into too much background detail, which I understand might be spoilery, can you elaborate at all on who/what Windblade is?

Mairghread: To be fair, beyond being a jet and a sword fighter I started with a pretty blank slate when I developed Windblade, so don’t fault the wiki for that one. The most important thing for me when constructing Windblade was to make her a fully three-dimensional (read: flawed) character, so if I had to pick one word to describe her I would say that Windblade is trying. She’s an optimistic, hard-working Transformers character who is genuinely interested in helping others, but she’s also been dropped in the aftermath of a millennia (for real) long war that she was not really part of, so while she’s a very competent character, she’s way behind the curve when it comes to knowing who’s who and what’s what on Cybertron. This actually makes Transfomers: Windblade a really good starting point for new readers because almost everything on Cybertron is as new to her as it is to someone just entering the brand.

What’ll be the overall tone of the book? Transformers can run the gamut from very kid-friendly to very mature (although even Transformers Prime had its extremely dark moments, see the whole Silas storyline, for example). While I have no doubt Windblade will have its emotionally impactful moments, are you aiming overall for something lighter or more fun, or is this a much more serious endeavor?

Transformers: Windblade is, at its core, a story about hope: who has it, who doesn’t, what does it cost and when is it worth (and not worth) that price. So you should expect a story that runs the entire emotional gamut. That said, Transformers: Windblade will definitely be fast-paced and fun because Transformers as a brand is so fast-paced and fun, but hope in the hands of someone like Starscream can be a very dangerous thing and Windblade, who is so centered around the idea of hope, is going to learn that the hard way.

[...]

what’s the #1 (or #1 through #5) thing you want people to know about WINDBLADE? Either the comic as a whole or the character.

When it comes to the comic, you should be reading it.

If you’ve loved Hasbro and IDW’s Transformers comics for years, you should read it: Sarah and I have really tried to push the envelope in both storytelling, artistic style and that wonderful point where they meet. We’re going to open whole new worlds for you both in-story and on the page and you are not going to want to miss it.

If you’ve never read Transformers, you should read it. Transformers: Windblade is a perfect jumping on point and designed to show off all the best (okay, all my favorite) parts of this brand: fantastic characters, imaginative landscapes, awesome fight scenes and, yes, even humor.

And if you’re an impulse buyer, you can order issue 1 from your local comic store right now: FEB140337 E TRANSFORMERS WINDBLADE #1 (OF 4) gets you the Casey Coller cover.

A pass. No issue with fembots but not a fan of either the way they're being shoehorned into this corner of the IDWverse which is genderless. I probably also wouldn't have been as annoyed by it had the author not made some odious comments attempting to speak on behalf of all women. Had this been a Prime book or Animated no-one (including me) would have found even the slightest amount to react to. And on top of that those Stone sketches look awful. I realise they're just sketches but...

WHERE have I seen a story about FIVE new airplane characters dropped into a centuries long war that wasn't theirs. Who were new to Cybertron, and also had to figure out who was who the hard way? (Cough G1 cartoon Cough)

I'm interested to see how this series (and character) turns out. As I'm collecting all of the main IDW continuity, I'll definitely be picking it up.

Chromia looks awesome. I hope that's similar to the upcoming Deluxe figure.

I do agree Starscream & Blurr look more feminine than usual, but out of all the characters that could be drawn that way, they're most fitting. What I like most about all of these designs is that they scream personality. Definitely looking forward to this.

Motto:"You honestly believed that The Leige Maximo was Prima's other half? How foolish of you!"

Weapon: Dark Saber Sword

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I don't mean to sound sexist or anything, but does anyone else notice that both Starscream and Blurr have more feminine figures than Chromia?

I believe these are merely concept art as Chromia's form in the comics greatly differs from what we see here. For now at least. It may be she gets a new altmode and a new body structure to go w/ it just like Windblade.

All talk of gender aside, this Windblade character makes Drift look not quite so utterly, utterly cliched and beneath contempt in comparison. It's like bad fanfic accidentally given the green light. I love these versions of Chromia and Blurr however.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:I don't mean to sound sexist or anything, but does anyone else notice that both Starscream and Blurr have more feminine figures than Chromia?

Me too, But I was afraid to say it and be raged to death.Nothing against feminine designs but, either you change completely the gender (I don't like it, but some people do) or you maintain original character proportion (look at that starscream head, what the flick!)

MR Optimus Prime wrote:WHERE have I seen a story about FIVE new airplane characters dropped into a centuries long war that wasn't theirs. Who were new to Cybertron, and also had to figure out who was who the hard way? (Cough G1 cartoon Cough)

Well, it sure is a darn good thing we won't be getting THAT story anytime soon since the war here has been good and over for a while now and Windblade's being dropped into the AFTERMATH of the war that wasn't hers.

Caelus wrote:My wife pointed out something interesting about the prehistoric Predacons. I said that everyone was complaining because transforming for them mostly consisted of them just standing up-right. She essentially said, 'So? That's what our ancestors did.'

That Blur looks awesome, maybe a tad bit too much hips, but cool looking. Windblade looks a lot like the WFC Shockwave with turbines and painted face head EDIT: Oh yea and metal boobs. Maybe its just me.

I do like the way she looks here though, Chromia I mean, not Windblade (still gonna pop her head off and put something else there if I can). I really hope we get a Chromia figure. Transformers is REALLY lacking in female characters that aren't Arcee and Blackarachnia.